ONE POLICE PLAZA — Critics who want to go back to using the stop-and-frisk tactics of the previous adminstration to address the recent uptick in murders need to "get over it," NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said Monday.
“Let’s get over it,” Bratton said during a press conference at NYPD headquarters Monday. “SQF (Stop, Question and Frisk) is not a significant factor in the crime rate of this city.”
Bratton pointed to 2011, when the number of police stops reached 685,000, while rapes, assaults and grand larcenies increased. Overall crime rose 1.5 percent that year, he said.
In 2014, Bratton added, officers made just 48,000 stops, while the number of murders, rapes and other violent crimes significantly decreased as crime dropped 4.5 percent overall.
“Last year, when we had the lowest number of [stop-and-frisks], we had much less crime, the lowest number of homicides in the recorded history of the department,” Bratton said.
“I’m sorry,” he added. “If you can give me facts and figures that show something else, I’m more than happy to listen, but let’s get over it.”
Last week, top NYPD officials said they were "struggling" with shootings and homicides in May due to gangs and the warm weather.
According to the most recent NYPD statistics, murders were up 20 percent, to 136 from 113 through May 31. The number of shootings has jumped 9 percent, to 439 this year from 403 last year.
Those numbers are sure to change, as there were three people shot, one fatally, in East Harlem this weekend, as well as another man stabbed to death in The Bronx.
Speaking at an unrelated press conference Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the reaction to the uptick in homicides has been overblown.
"The number of murders to date this year is 32 percent lower than five years ago at this exact same time... [and] 83 percent lower than 1993," de Blasio said.
"There have been some voices of hysteria missing the fact that there is an overall trend here, and the credit goes to the NYPD," he added.
The NYPD on Wednesday will roll out an additional 300 officers to 14 precincts as part of its “Summer All Out” program to combat a spike 20 percent spike in murders so far this year.
"The problem is localized. it is a handful of precincts and it is specifically a problem related to gangs and crews," de Blasio said.
The NYPD used the same tactic in 2014. When the officers first hit the streets last year during the week of July 10, shootings were up 18 percent. By the end of the summer, they were up just 5 percent, Bratton said.
This year, the NYPD is implementing the strategy a full month earlier.
“That program coupled with about $30 million in overtime last summer really resulted in a very significant turnaround in what had been a growing problem in the early spring,” the commissioner said.
De Blasio said the tactic will work even better this year because of changes to the police department.
"The difference this time is.... we've got a lot more police time and energy freed up because we are not doing some of the things we used to do like the unconstitutional stops and the marijuana arrests that are unnecessary," the mayor said.
